Very likely the worst game in the core Mega Man series, Mega Man 8 just got so far away from the original flavor of the franchise that it's no wonder it killed the classic timeline and kept a new, numbered sequel from showing up for over 11 years after its release. Now there are plenty of people who like Mega Man 8 -- that's fine, it's still a good game in its own right. But when lined up alongside all the other series sequels, as we're doing here, it just falls flat.

For starters, Mega Man 8 moved the franchise off of Nintendo systems for the first time -- a shift that offended many longtime loyalists back in 1997, since the character had been synonymous with Nintendo for a full decade up to that point. It took a multi-platform release approach that saw it shipping two versions, one for the SEGA Saturn and the other for Sony's first PlayStation -- but no Nintendo version. Mega Man 9 and 10 have luckily remedied that, bringing themselves to all current consoles (and even rewarding Wii owners with a bit of exclusive first-release time in both cases).

Mega Man 8 redid our hero's visual style over again, taking him further away from the crisp and clean sprite art that marked his first adventures and replacing it with a still-good, but not as original graphical look.

Mega Man 8 introduced animated cartoon cutscenes, complete with some exceptionally poor voice-acting -- instead of the in-game sequences the other games employed. Another terrible change.

And 8 had some truly bad levels to play through, based on way too many gimmicks -- like the ridiculous snowboard ride in Frost Man's stage, the flying shoot-'em-up sequence in Tengu Man's stage and Sword Man's weird, puzzle-based temple. Whatever happened to the pure action?

You know, I said earlier that Mega Man 5 might be the game that gets ranked lowest when it comes to overall impact on the upcoming Mega Man 10, but I think 8 must trump it -- because 8 was so vastly different that Capcom actively attempted to not replicate any piece of it when bringing the series back.

It's true that there was a gap of 11 years between the releases of Mega Man 8 and Mega Man 9, but the Blue Bomber's classic series had one more installment sandwiched right in the middle -- Japan's Rockman & Forte, for the Super Famicom. Created as a bit of a concession to Nintendo fans offended at the lack of 8 on their system, it was a game that adapted some of that same style backwards to the 16-bit machine. Then, a few years later, it would could to America as the Game Boy Advance game Mega Man & Bass.

Mega Man & Bass sums itself up almost entirely in its title, as it's the game that first introduced a playable character other than Mega Man himself into the classic series -- Bass was selectable right from the start, and offered a wholly different style of play. He could double-jump, he could dash, and he could fire his arm cannon at seven different angles -- all abilities that Mega Man has never wielded himself. Bass' boost in abilities was counterbalanced by the fact that his cannon couldn't charge up like Mega Man's, and his shots can't pass through walls, so it wasn't an entirely one-sided choice when it came time to pick your hero.

If Bass does end up being Mega Man 10's third playable character, then this game (like 7, which introduced him), will end up having a major impact on the upcoming sequel -- it's likely that he'd even play the same way as in this game. If the third hero is someone else, though, then Mega Man & Bass' influence might not be felt much at all -- because its visual style, structure of stage progression and more are all certainly being ignored.

Mega Man & Bass did have one last thing that might be nice to see make a return in 10 -- the CDs. Strewn throughout the game were tons of collectible data CDs that, when acquired, added content to a gallery of artwork and information about all of the characters in the series up to that point. It added an extra element of depth and replayability to the design, and though directly copying the CDs themselves wouldn't be great, the idea of it is enticing -- like Achievements, it's nice to have other goals to strive for and things to accomplish beyond just getting through the game and seeing the end credits.